JP5147536B2 - Unauthorized vehicle photographing system and image processing apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention detects a vehicle that illegally passes a lane (hereinafter referred to as a general lane) where an ETC (Electronic Toll Collection System) is not installed on a toll road or the like, and takes an image of the unauthorized vehicle. The present invention relates to an unauthorized vehicle photographing system.

A conventional unauthorized vehicle detection system captures and accumulates images on a lane with a camera, and manually analyzes the accumulated images to detect unauthorized vehicles. In addition, in order to reduce the amount of data to be analyzed, images are accumulated at the timing when the toll collector pushes the push button when passing the illegal vehicle (for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 7-311892 A

  In the conventional unauthorized vehicle detection device, there is a problem that it takes time to extract an unauthorized vehicle for moving image accumulation. In addition, there is a problem that it is not possible to specify an unauthorized vehicle because there is a difference in timing of pressing the push button of the receipt person or there is a mistake in pressing. Furthermore, since moving images are accumulated, there is a problem that it takes time and labor to analyze an illegal vehicle (such as automatic reading of number plate information) because a clear image cannot be taken.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a system that can extract an illegal vehicle in a general lane that has conventionally required time to extract an illegal vehicle with a simple configuration.

The unauthorized vehicle photographing system of this invention
Installed around a toll gate that collects tolls from vehicles temporarily stopped at a predetermined stop position, measures the stop time of the vehicle at the stop position, and outputs a stop time signal indicating the stop time as a measurement result A time sensor device to
A vehicle detection sensor device that is installed around the toll gate, detects the vehicle traveling from the stop position, and outputs a vehicle detection signal as a detection result;
A still image photographing device for photographing a still image of the vehicle including a number plate attached to the vehicle;
The stop time signal output from the time sensor device and the vehicle detection signal output from the vehicle detection sensor device are input, and it is determined whether the stop time indicated by the stop time signal is equal to or less than a preset threshold value. And a processing unit that, when determined to be equal to or less than the threshold value, calculates a shooting timing for shooting the vehicle based on the vehicle detection signal, and causes the still image shooting device to take the still image of the vehicle at the calculated shooting timing; And an image processing device having a still image storage unit for storing the still image photographed by the still image photographing device.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a system capable of extracting an unauthorized vehicle in a general lane that is not an ETC lane with a simple configuration.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of hardware resources of an image processing apparatus 100 implemented by a computer. In FIG. 1, the image processing apparatus 100 includes a CPU 810 (Central Processing Unit: also called a central processing unit, an arithmetic unit, a microprocessor, a microcomputer, and a processor) that executes a program. The CPU 810 is connected to a ROM (Read Only Memory) 811, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 812, a display device 813, an operation key 814, a communication board 816, and a magnetic disk device 820 via a bus 825, and these hardware devices are connected. Control. Instead of the magnetic disk device 820, a storage device such as an optical disk device or a flash memory may be used.

  The RAM 812 is an example of a volatile memory. Storage media such as the ROM 811 and the magnetic disk device 820 are examples of nonvolatile memories. These are examples of a storage device or an accumulation unit, a storage unit, a storage unit, and a recording unit. The communication board 816 is an example of an input unit, an input device, and a communication unit. The communication board 816, the display device 813, and the like are examples of an output unit and an output device.

  The communication board 816 is connected to the network. The communication board 816 communicates with the lane monitoring camera 10, the vehicle photographing device 20, the time sensor device 50, the vehicle detection sensor device 60, the search processing device 200, and the like.

  The magnetic disk device 820 stores an operating system 821 (OS), a program group 823, and a file group 824. The programs in the program group 823 are executed by the CPU 810 and the operating system 821.

  The program group 823 has functions such as “recording unit 101”, “communication unit 102”, “storage unit 103”, “processing unit 104”, etc. described as “˜unit” in the following description of the embodiment. A program to be executed is stored. The program is read and executed by the CPU 810.

  The file group 824 includes “determination result”, “calculation result”, “extraction result”, “generation result”, and “processing result” in the description of the embodiment described below. Information, data, signal values, variable values, parameters, and the like are stored as items of “˜file” and “˜database”. The “˜file” and “˜database” are stored in a recording medium such as a disk or a memory. Information, data, signal values, variable values, and parameters stored in a storage medium such as a disk or memory are read out to the main memory or cache memory by the CPU 810 via a read / write circuit, and extracted, searched, referenced, compared, and calculated. • Used for CPU operations such as calculation, processing, output, and display. Information, data, signal values, variable values, and parameters are temporarily stored in the main memory, cache memory, and buffer memory during the CPU operation of extraction, search, reference, comparison, calculation, calculation, processing, output, and display. Is done.

  In the description of the embodiments described below, data and signal values are recorded in a recording medium such as a memory in the RAM 812, a magnetic disk in the magnetic disk device 820, and a flash memory. Data and signals are transmitted on-line via the bus 825, signal lines, cables, and other transmission media.

  Further, in the description of the embodiments described below, what is described as “to part” may be “means”, “to circuit”, and “to device”, and “to step” and “to”. “Procedure” and “˜Process” may be used. That is, what is described as “˜unit” may be realized by firmware stored in the ROM 811. Alternatively, it may be implemented only by software, or only by hardware such as elements, devices, substrates, and wirings, by a combination of software and hardware, or by a combination of firmware. Firmware and software are stored as programs in a recording medium such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, or a compact disk. The program is read by the CPU 810 and executed by the CPU 810. That is, the program causes the computer to function as “to part” described below. Alternatively, the procedure or method of “to part” described below is executed by a computer.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration of the unauthorized vehicle photographing system 1000 according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of each device of the unauthorized vehicle photographing system 1000.

  As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the unauthorized vehicle photographing system 1000 includes a lane monitoring camera 10 (moving image photographing device) for photographing a moving image of a vehicle, and a vehicle photographing device 20 (still image photographing device) for photographing a still image of the vehicle. And a time sensor device 50 for measuring the stop time of the vehicle, a vehicle detection sensor device 60 for detecting the vehicle, and a search processing device 200.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the unauthorized vehicle photographing system 1000. The operation of the unauthorized vehicle photographing system 1000 will be described with reference to FIGS.

  When the vehicle 1 enters the general lane where the toll booth is located in S101, the passenger of the vehicle 1 stops at the stop position in front of the toll booth and pays the fee. However, the vehicle 1 that does not pay the fee passes without stopping at the toll booth. As shown in FIG. 2, the time sensor device 50 (for stopping time measurement) is installed in the vicinity of a toll gate that collects tolls from a vehicle temporarily stopped at a predetermined stop position, and measures the stop time of the vehicle. To do. That is, the time sensor device 50 installed in front of the toll booth measures the stop time t of the vehicle 1 and notifies (outputs) the stop time t (stop time signal) to the processing unit 4 of the image processing apparatus 100 ( S102). The processing unit 104 compares the preset time A (threshold value) with the notified stop time t (S103). When the notified stop time t is equal to or shorter than the set time A (YES in S103), the processing unit 104 determines that the vehicle is an illegal passing vehicle.

  When it is determined that the vehicle is an illegal passing vehicle, the processing unit 104 is based on the vehicle detection signal from the vehicle detection sensor device 60 (for imaging) and matches the timing when the vehicle 1 passes in front of the vehicle detection sensor device 60. 6 and the illuminating unit 7 are output to the vehicle photographing device 20 to photograph the vehicle 1 (S104). That is, as shown in FIG. 2, the vehicle detection sensor device 60 is installed around the toll booth, detects the vehicle 1 traveling from the stop position, and outputs a vehicle detection signal as a detection result to the image processing device 300. Output to. When the processing unit 104 determines that the notified stop time t is equal to or less than the set time A (threshold), the processing unit 104 calculates a shooting timing for shooting the vehicle 1 based on the vehicle detection signal, and the vehicle shooting device 20 (stationary) at the calculated shooting timing. The image capturing device) captures a still image of the vehicle 1. In this case, the vehicle imaging device 20 captures a still image of the vehicle 1 including a number plate attached to the vehicle 1. Then, the processing unit 104 stores the still image captured by the vehicle imaging device 20 in the storage unit 103.

  Through the above processing, it is possible to automatically capture an unauthorized vehicle (automatic still image capturing) in a general lane. Further, since the camera unit 21 is triggered imaging and does not capture a continuous image, a high-pixel image can be acquired and an image with a high resolution can be acquired.

(Warning by buzzer sound)
The following S105 to S107 are optional. Further, in S105, the processing unit 104 notifies the receiver by means of a buzzer 105 (an example of a notification unit) installed in a toll booth or the like that automatic still image shooting of an unauthorized vehicle has been performed. The toll member presses the push button 106 only when an illegal vehicle passes. The processing unit 104 determines whether or not the push button 106 has been pressed (S106), and if determined to have been pressed, stores the captured image (still image) in the storage unit 103 (S107). That is, the storage unit 103 temporarily stores the captured still image. The processing unit 104 sounds a buzzer 105 when a still image is captured. The push button 106 is a storage request receiving unit that receives a storage request for a still image temporarily stored. When the processing unit 104 detects that the push button 106 (accumulation request receiving unit) is pressed within a predetermined period after the buzzer 105 is sounded, the processing unit 104 determines the storage of the still image and stores the still image. .

  Since the image processing apparatus 100 includes the buzzer 105 and the push button 106 as an option, unnecessary images such as when a vehicle that has accidentally passed in front of the toll booth turned back and paid a fee, or when a wrong image was taken, etc. Can be eliminated. For this reason, the system or the storage device can be reduced in size and weight.

(Extraction of number plate information)
The following cases are also optional. FIG. 5 shows an example of a still image photographed by the vehicle photographing device 20. The processing unit 104 superimposes information such as the shooting date and time and the location on the still image stored in the storage unit 103 as shown in FIG. The still image in FIG. 5 is the entire vehicle image 11, and “shooting information 12” such as a shooting date and a shooting point is superimposed on the entire vehicle image 11. The driver 14 and the number plate 15 are shown in the vehicle 1 in the image. The processing unit 104 also performs character recognition processing on the description information of the number plate 15 of the vehicle 1 according to the flow shown in FIG. 6, and links the information (image (still image), shooting date and time) to the storage unit 103 as number plate information. And save. In other words, when the storage of the still image is confirmed, the processing unit 104 extracts the number plate information described in the number plate from the still image by predetermined image processing, and extracts the extracted number plate information and number plate information. The original still image is associated with and stored in the storage unit 103. The number plate information extraction processing by the processing unit 104 will be described. 6A to 6F show the extraction operation of the processing unit 104. FIG. As illustrated in FIG. 6, the processing unit 104 inputs (a) a still image captured by the vehicle imaging device 20, differentiates (b) the input image, and generates a run length based on the differentiated image (c). ), The number plate image is cut out (d), the number plate image is binarized (e), the number plate characters are recognized from the binarized image (f), and are recognized by the storage unit 103. The number plate recognition result and the captured image at that time are stored in association with each other. In this way, the processing unit 104 cuts out the number plate portion and automatically reads the number plate information by software that performs the processing shown in FIG. The recognized number plate recognition result and the captured image at that time are associated with each other by the processing unit 104, transmitted to the storage unit 103, and stored by the storage unit 103. The approaching vehicle can be detected by reading the number plate information by the processing unit 104. Images stored in the storage unit 103, shooting date and time information, and license plate information (hereinafter collectively referred to as vehicle information) are sent to the search processing device 200 installed in a management office or the like via the communication unit 102 of the image processing device 100. Sent. The transmitted vehicle information is subjected to search processing and data management processing by the processing unit 202 of the search processing device 200 based on information such as number plate information and shooting date / time. The processing unit 202 displays the result on the display unit 201, and the output unit 203 outputs the search processing result and the data management result.

  By extracting the number plate information as described above, it is possible to analyze an unauthorized vehicle based on information such as the shooting date and time.

(Video shooting)
The following cases are also optional. As shown in FIG. 2, a lane monitoring camera 10 (moving image capturing device) is installed to capture a moving image of a vehicle passing in front of the toll booth in real time. That is, the lane monitoring camera 10 captures a moving image of a vehicle traveling from a stop position in front of the toll booth. The captured moving image data is stored in the recording unit 101 (moving image storage unit) of the image processing apparatus 300. Based on the signal that the push button 106 has been pressed, the processing unit 104 acquires moving image data from the recording unit 101 up to several minutes before the signal point, links the moving image data with the vehicle information, and stores the moving image data in the storage unit 103. save. The moving image data and vehicle information stored in the storage unit 103 are transmitted to the search processing device 200 installed in a management office or the like via the communication unit 102 of the image processing device 100. The search processing apparatus 200 performs data management including moving images.

  By linking the moving image data with the still image, it is possible to link the image and the vehicle information that are evidence of whether or not the vehicle 1 has paid the fee.

In the above embodiment,
An unauthorized vehicle photographing system that automatically captures an unauthorized vehicle by installing a timing sensor device that measures the vehicle stop time in front of the toll booth was described.

In the above embodiment,
The illegal vehicle photographing system has been described in which the captured image is accumulated by the push button operation of the receiver, and thus the unnecessary image can be eliminated.

In the above embodiment,
The use of a time sensor device and a vehicle detection sensor device can obtain shutter timing, and can capture high pixel images that could not be realized with moving images, and can capture images that can withstand automatic number plate recognition. Explained the illegal vehicle shooting system.

In the above embodiment,
In addition to the still image camera, we explained the illegal vehicle shooting system that can use the video camera at the same time to acquire the unpaid evidence image.

4 illustrates an example of hardware resources of the image processing apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment. The system configuration | structure of the unauthorized vehicle imaging | photography system 1000 of Embodiment 1. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an unauthorized vehicle photographing system 1000 according to Embodiment 1. FIG. 6 is a processing flow of the unauthorized vehicle photographing system 1000 according to the first embodiment. 4 is an example of a still image according to the first embodiment. The figure which shows the number plate information extraction process of Embodiment 1. FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vehicle, 10 lane monitoring camera, 12 imaging | photography information, 14 driver | operator, 15 number plate, 20 vehicle imaging device, 21 camera part, 22 illumination part, 50 timing sensor apparatus, 60 vehicle detection sensor apparatus, 100 image processing apparatus, 101 Recording unit, 102 communication unit, 103 storage unit, 104 processing unit, 105 buzzer, 106 push button, 200 search processing device, 201 display unit, 202 processing unit, 203 output unit, 1000 unauthorized vehicle photographing system.

Claims (5)

Installed around a toll gate that collects tolls from vehicles temporarily stopped at a predetermined stop position, measures the stop time of the vehicle at the stop position, and outputs a stop time signal indicating the stop time as a measurement result A time sensor device to
A vehicle detection sensor device that is installed around the toll gate, detects the vehicle traveling from the stop position, and outputs a vehicle detection signal as a detection result;
A still image photographing device for photographing a still image of the vehicle including a number plate attached to the vehicle;
The stop time signal output from the time sensor device and the vehicle detection signal output from the vehicle detection sensor device are input, and it is determined whether the stop time indicated by the stop time signal is equal to or less than a preset threshold value. And a processing unit that, when determined to be equal to or less than the threshold value, calculates a shooting timing for shooting the vehicle based on the vehicle detection signal, and causes the still image shooting device to take the still image of the vehicle at the calculated shooting timing; An unauthorized vehicle photographing system comprising: an image processing device having a still image storage unit that stores the still image photographed by the still image photographing device. The still image storage unit of the image processing device is
Temporarily storing the still image;
The image processing apparatus further includes:
A reporting unit that issues a report when the still image is captured;
A storage request reception unit that receives the storage request for the still image;
The processor is
The unauthorized vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the storage of the still image is confirmed when the storage request reception unit receives the storage request within a predetermined period after the notification unit issues a notification. Shooting system. The unauthorized vehicle photographing system further includes:
A moving image shooting device for shooting a moving image of the vehicle traveling from the stop position;
The image processing apparatus further includes:
A moving picture storage unit for storing moving picture data of a moving picture taken by the moving picture photographing apparatus;
The processor is
The moving image data from the time when the accumulation request accepting unit accepts the accumulation request to a predetermined time before is acquired from the moving image storage unit, and the acquired moving image data and the still image captured by the still image capturing device The unauthorized vehicle photographing system according to claim 2, wherein the image is associated and stored in the still image storage unit. The processing unit of the image processing apparatus includes:
When the storage of the still image is confirmed, the number plate information described in the number plate is extracted from the still image by predetermined image processing, and the extracted number plate information and the still plate from which the number plate information is extracted are extracted. The unauthorized vehicle photographing system according to claim 2, wherein the image is associated with the image and stored in the still image storage unit. A time sensor device installed around a toll gate that collects a toll from a vehicle temporarily stopped at a predetermined stop position, measures the stop time of the vehicle, and outputs a stop time signal indicating the stop time as a measurement result From the vehicle detection sensor device that inputs the stop time signal from the vehicle, detects the vehicle that is installed around the toll gate and travels from the stop position, and outputs a vehicle detection signal that is a detection result An imaging timing for inputting a vehicle detection signal, determining whether or not the stop time indicated by the stop time signal is less than or equal to a preset threshold value, and imaging the vehicle based on the vehicle detection signal if determined to be less than or equal to the threshold value Before the still image capturing device that captures a still image of the vehicle including a number plate attached to the vehicle at the calculated capturing timing. A processing unit for capturing the still image of the vehicle,
An image processing apparatus comprising: a still image storage unit that stores the still image captured by the still image capturing device.

Images